Amitabh-Saif-Deepika movie in big trouble!

To avoid delays and other hassles, Prakash Jha agrees to make minor changes in Aarakshan

Politics and films are not friends, as we are seeing now. Prakash Jha’s Aarakshan is grabbing headlines every day and the plot is only getting thicker and murkier. Politicians in north India are milking the film’s controversial theme to suit their own agendas. News is just in that after Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh, the Punjab government has banned the screening of Aarakshan in the state. The ban will stay until the state screening committee previews the movie and submits its report. And now some ministers in the Maharashtra government are asking for a stay until a deeper examination is done. To make things even more messy, the entire scheduled caste-scheduled tribe lobby is up in arms about reported scenes and a part of the story line that talks about the minority communities. Filmmaker Jha is running from pillar to post trying to ensure that his film gets a proper release, but as of now things are not looking good for him at all. Those who have seen the Amitabh Bachchan-Saif Ali Khan-Manoj Bajpayee-Deepika Padukone-starrer say that Aarakshan is focussed on the loopholes in the education system, with the reservation issue as just a small part of the larger scheme of things – the entire hullabaloo is uncalled for, they insist. A press release from the UP government states that the ban is, indeed, permanent. The authorities, headed by Chief Minister Mayawati, want some ‘objectionable’ content removed and will allow the screening only after those scenes have been deleted. The sudden involvement of politicians in the film also shows the Censor Board in a bad light, as they had cleared the production. We hear that politicians in other states are also trying to stop the film from being released. And the stars are going to town protesting all this politicking. Jha has finally put an end to the string of controversies by agreeing to make minor changes following the objections. The most important thing for any filmmaker is to ensure that his film gets a proper release, so wethinks Jha did the right thing.